New Stuff For Old Stuff :: Blog

T oday we transfomed this magnificent mess of wires.... Into this beautiful little module It plugs into the Minstrel 4th's RC2014 port, either directly, or as here, using an RC2014 backplane . It accepts a USB keyboard* via an OTG adaptor (USB A to micro). Like its inspiration, the Jupiter Ace, you wouldn't want to spend serious typing time on the Minstrel's tactile keyboard. It's nice to have a familiar layout of full-size keys, and the interface's firmware buffers your input, meaning that you can type as fast as you like.  It took a lot of development time to get to a working breadboard prototype. It's pretty fragile and so it feels very good to have received the first PCBs today.  There was a minor hitch, which has to do with my limited understanding of the Pico's confusing VBUS/VSYS power supply circuit. In the end it was easily solved with a solder bridge and here it is working: Since ordering these version 1 boards, I decided to add the ability to conn...

T his adventure started a few weeks ago when Spencer included an item in his RC2014 newsletter about James Bowman's port of CamelForth for RC2014 . 1, 2 or 3 dice depending on the button you press. In Forth for RC2014 with OLED display and digital I/o module. #8bitcoders #RC2014 pic.twitter.com/9c8xLZBPcW — Shirley Knott (@shieladixon) December 11, 2020 I was intrigued by the arithmetic using double-length numbers and as James gives a few bits of example code in his article, it looked like a good opportunity to have a little foray into Forth. (I love the Jupiter Ace. I wish more had been sold so that they're a little less pricey today.) I found several versions for CP/M. (I like using Compact Flash storage and CP/M on my RC2014.) Like BASIC, generic Forth sometimes doesn't work on the version you have without modification. Some versions contain more words or stick to the standard more closely than others. I tried Forth80, DXForth and UniForth as well as CamelForth and...